East Gwillimbury Health & Active Living Plaza
East Gwillimbury, Ontario
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Aquatic Centre, Gymnasium, Fitness Centre, Indoor Track, Indoor Play Space, Library, Maker Space, Recording Studio, Multipurpose Rooms, Community Kitchen with Outdoor Gathering and Event Space
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Structural: Blackwell
Mechanical / Electrical: Smith + Andersen
Civil: EMC
Landscape: MJMA
With a design that connects its community to East Gwillimbury’s distinctive regional landscapes, the Health and Active Living Plaza (HALP) is a new vital locus of civic identity and activity. Located in the Queensville village area of East Gwillimbury, a town in the Greater Toronto Area, the 90,000-sf facility consolidates under one roof a range of recreational, health, and arts and culture amenities. These include the town’s first ever aquatic centre (offering fully accessible leisure and lap pools), a gym with an elevated running/walking track, a children’s play area, and a branch public library with an associated community kitchen, multipurpose community room, maker space, and sound studio.
As a new civic focal point that consolidates services for the community, the HALP befittingly sits at the centre of a pinwheel configuration comprised of new residential developments and extensive public parkland. The facility’s landscaped courtyard is also continuous with this parkland.
Multiuse was a priority in the planning of the facility’s spaces. A key instance is the lobby, which doubles as a multi-functional social and circulation space that connects all the main programs. It includes areas for viewing into the gym and pools. To expand programming opportunities, the aquatics changerooms also have access from the gym.
The unifying motif throughout is the ‘Wood Berg’ whose form is inspired by the drumlin landscape of the East Gwillimbury region. Constructed from planks of laminated knotty pine, these sculptural timber elements organize the major public spaces — acting as civic thresholds that shape movement, frame views, and create warmth and texture through the building. Each Wood Berg rises to continuous clerestories, allowing natural light to wash across the wood ribs throughout the day and across seasons.
Integrated throughout the central lobby, gallery display boxes create a living showcase for artists, makers, craftspeople, and cultural guilds. Curated by the community, these installations transform the lobby into an evolving public program celebrating local creativity into the everyday experience of the building.
In the lobby, the primary Wood Berg acts as a central timber spine connecting the building’s two opposing entrances while simultaneously organizing the major program zones of the facility.
Placing the children’s play area indoors allows it to become a year-round amenity. Designed in harmony with the Wood Bergs, this space draws inspiration from the glacial landscapes and drumlin fields that shaped the regional geography of East Gwillimbury. These landforms are reinterpreted in the sculptural play structures, colours, and flowing floor patterns as an immersive interior landscape.
Organized around a sculptural Wood Berg element and incorporating warm materials, soft lighting, and varied seating, the HALP’s branch library was conceived to feel comfortable and intimate. With the inclusion of children’s zones and a connected program room, community kitchen, and maker space, the library supports a wide range of everyday individual and communal activities.
While accessible from the library, the maker space also helps activate the facility’s central social heart: its operable garage door opens directly onto the lobby, allowing the display of its program offerings and encouraging participation from the broader community.
